Crying Trigger is the New Crying Wolf

And it unintentionally stigmatizes others.

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

“So, Dexter is your…trigger??”

You could hear the air quotes — and the insinuation that “triggers are bullshit” — in my friend’s question from across the room.

It was a typical get-together, sitting around in one of our living rooms shooting the shit about movies, TV shows, books, politics, etc. We rotate living rooms, but the topics are mostly the same among our 6-friend cadre. And I had just mentioned how I only watched the first season of Dexter because the violence at the end of season one triggered something I had no desire to ever relive.

I am a fangirl. Anyone would say so — in fact, Buffy is on in the background as I write this. I enjoy fantasy, horror, superheroes, and serial killer lore. Violent movies like Pulp Fiction, Alien, and The Godfather were as important a part of my high school education as high school.

And, like nearly 25% of the American population, I also experienced physical and emotional abuse when I was a kiddo. Because of this part of my experiential and human makeup, I — like many others who share the statistic — have struggled during my life to manage PTSD because of it.

So, after an unexpected and irrational reaction to a violent scene at the end of one season of a popular TV show…